Published 8:23 am, Tuesday, April 10, 2012

NORWALK -- Starting Monday, Norwalkers will be able to download from their home computers "resident passes" to enter Calf Pasture Beach/Shady Beaches, Veterans Memorial Park, as well as the city's Transfer and Debris stations.

On Friday, city officials demonstrated the new system using a public computer at the parks department at City Hall.

"You put in the license plate number, the last four numbers of your (vehicle identification number), the year of the vehicle," said Patrice Potrykus, executive secretary in the parks department. "Then click the legal disclaimer box and submit. And then all you have to do is download and … the printer will print (the resident pass)."

Once the information is in the system, automatic license plate readers at Calf Pasture/Shady Beaches, Veterans Memorial Park and eventually the Transfer Station will speed entry at those locations, according to city officials.

"It will speed the people going through Calf Pasture," said Mayor Richard A. Moccia. "But should there be any kind of glitch, we ask them when they print out their (resident pass), just to keep it in the car with them just as a back-up."

Michael A. Mocciae, the city's director of recreation and parks, displayed an example of a plastic resident pass holder, which will be given out at the gate of Calf Pasture/Shady beaches. The parks department, he said, is doing a corporate promotion effort with businesses in which businesses may advertise on the pass holders.

"They only time they'll need the pass on their windshield is when they park in 'Resident Parking Only,'" Mocciae said. "So if they're coming to the beach and parking in the main lot, they won't need to show this on their dash. But while they're in Shady Beach, if they're a resident, they'll have to put (the resident pass) in their windshield, so they don't get a ticket."

According to officials, the new system is better than the old system in that residents will need not affix a sticker to their windshield and change it yearly.

Mocciae said the new system also will save the city mailing costs, which ran more than $30,000-a-year when the city mailed out 'beach sticker,' as well as hiring part-time staff to process the passes at City Hall.

According to Mocciae, the start-up cost of the new system is about $50,000. That figure includes the license-plate readers and work by the city's Information Technology Department to set up the system.

Moccia reminded that residents who are not paid up on their property taxes will be unable to print the pass. In that case, they'll have to go to the Tax Collector's Office and square up. Likewise, Norwalk property owners who live elsewhere, or new residents who do not yet have their vehicles registered in Norwalk, will have to come to the Department of Recreation and Parks for the pass.

Residents who do not have home computers may use those at the Department of Recreation and Parks at City Hall, the Norwalk Senior Center, or the Main Library on Belden Avenue or South Norwalk Branch Library on Washington Street. The resident passes will be needed at Calf Pasture/Shady beaches and Veterans Memorial Park beginning May 1.